Trains Extended for New Year Enthusiasts in Bengaluru, Mumbai & Kolkata!

New year revelers in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata can heave a sigh of relief as they welcome 2018!

In a move to help passengers travel safely late night after the New Year’s Eve celebrations, Railway authorities in each of the Tier One cities have decided to run special trains with extended time periods than usual.

Representational Image only. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Here’s all you need to know about the special trains:

The Western Railways will run special trains between Churchgate and Virar till 3 am. While the train timings from Churchgate to Virar are 1.15 am, 2 am, 2.30 am, and 3.25 am on January 1, trains from Virar to Churchgate will run at 12.15 am, 12.45 am, 1.40 am and 3.05 am.

Even the Central Railway will run ‘New Year special’ trains. The one leaving CSMT for Kalyan and back will depart at 1.30 am from both stations. Similarly, the Harbour line will run a special train at 1.30 am for Panvel and from Panvel at 1.30 am reported the Times of India.

But it isn’t just Mumbai which is making life easy for its commuters. Passengers in Bengaluru on M.G. Road and Brigade Road can rejoice too! The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) will be operating trains on all reaches of Phase 1 covering a distance of 41 km, reported The Hindu.

The Metro services will be extended on New Year’s Eve till 2 a.m. on January 1, as opposed to the usual wrapping up time of 11 pm.

The Metro Rail Corporation is hopeful that it will benefit more passengers, much like previous years. When the Bengaluru Metro extended services last year on January 1, 2017, between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m, over 35,000 passengers came onboard. This year, the trains will run every 15 minutes during the extended hour.

The move by the Metro seems to have inspired the BMTC to follow suit too, which will run additional buses on New Year’s Eve.

Last but not the least, the Kolkata metro rail corporation will also be seen running these special trains on New Year as it did on Christmas. The metro rail authorities had announced the late night services on the December 25 and December 31, reported Kolkata 24X7.

While it is common to see metro trains running with low frequency during festive seasons, the corporation will run over 172 trains would run with a frequency of nine minutes on Dec 31. For those partying, Metro Railways will run trains till 12.15 am the next morning.

The idea is to avert any disruption of metro services and allow passengers to travel safely. The report also mentions that additional forces will be deployed in Esplanade, Park Street, and Maidan stations from December 24 to January 1.